FIC: The Chuck Writes Story - Afterword 5

[lettered]

Title: The Chuck Writes Story: Afterword 5
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: gen. Chuck, Becky
Rating: PG-13 for themes
Length: Total fic: 30,000. This part: 100
Summary: Fandom has a new god.
A/N: Please see notes here.
Previous parts: The Chuck Writes Story | Afterword | Afterword 2 | Afterword 3 | Afterword 4


6:15 pm Thursday, September 23, 2011
Afterword 5

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REPENT, FOR CASTIEL LIVES AND SHALL SMITE YOU.

Fans claim that the mass murderer walking around in a trench-coat and killing, murdering and maiming people in the news is in fact the character Castiel from Supernatural.

LOL fandom, never change.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

It wasn’t that Chuck cared, exactly. He’d never thought much one way or another about Jess; she was just the girlfriend Sam had to have, so she could die and kick-start Sam in the series. When people asked him, Chuck didn’t mention that it had come to him in a vision. What he said was, all the great stories started that way: girl dies. Inspires quest. It was archetypal; that’s what he told fans. Go watch Braveheart.

And yet, somehow, dean_lives’s comment hurt. It hurt, especially since it was the only one.

Besides, he wasn’t saying Jess was a slut. Just because he’d had her in a slutty nurse costume in the first book, and wrote this missing scene with one of Sam’s friends implying she was a slut, and then killed her off before you knew anything about her besides the fact that she wore skimpy clothes to bed and could make a mean cookie, didn’t make her a slut.

She could have depth. She could have character. He hadn’t written that, but so what? She could.

This is one of the most sublimely perfect skewerings I have ever read in my life.

Chuck was a huge success and could have 459—462—friends if he wanted. He totally could.

It's the "462" that makes it. I think I actually honked when I read this the first time.

It’s just that this whole LJ thing was sort of addictive and he couldn’t seem to stop refreshing his user page, and if they liked Carver Edlund so much, why wouldn’t they like his sock? Because if they didn’t . . . was it really the writing they loved, or was it the marketing, (the covers with their shirts ripped off, the models, the hair)—or was there actually some other Supernatural? Was there some amorphous, non-text, non-content driven Supernatural, a zeitgeist!Supernatural, some über Supernatural, a Supernatural that was his Supernatural and yet his no longer—now part of the collective mind, now part of the cultural maelström, or other words with umlauts, some Supernatural that belonged to the world and to the fans and no longer to the mind of the creator? A meta!SPN? Was it that Supernatural that they really loved—or was it Carver Edlund?

Oh, fuck, J, all the feelings. The way you make me all verklempt about fandom and how amazing and wonderful it is, and yes yes yes, and then you make me guffaw like a baboon, with the hair and the umlauts. All in the same paragraph. You are a very Joss-like writer, that way.

The trouble was, Sam, Dean, the rest of them, they didn’t feel like his own characters, at times. They were and they weren’t—how could something belong to him and not to him? Ask Schrödinger’s cat, or ask any fan; ask any idea or narrative or belief—was it yours? Did exist inside of you, but also outside of you?

Yeah. You did a superb job of cutting the bloat and keeping the greatness, in the final draft. This meta is delicious.

So Chuck clicked on blindfold_spn and spewed grapefruit juice and vodka on the keyboard.

I really love the way we hear all about his food. It's a deft, endearing, and surprisingly important way to ground him in the physical world throughout the story.

By golly gee whiz, I might even get to be canon one day!

Bwah! YESSS! I ♥ lettered!

In sum, you are barking mad and kind of a genius. I'm tickled as heck that I got to help a tiny bit and get a mention in the credits. Brb, have to go rec.

[lettered]

Thanks so much for all your help. I knew it was clunky; I'm just always so afraid people won't glom onto my MESSAGES and my MESSAGES are never so interesting as what actually comes out when I'm not directly thinking about them. It's interesting how that works. You really improved this fic so much.

This is one of the most sublimely perfect skewerings I have ever read in my life.

I kinda sorta wanted to do more of that. This show, more than almost any other show, makes me think about what the creators must be thinking. It's because 60% of the time it is so brilliant, and 20% of the time it's so appalling that I'm actually disgusted and want to turn it off. (the other 20% is just blah, in case you're wondering. Yes! Only 20%!) I just can't even imagine what the writers think this show is.

I saw your post about doing recaps for Glee--I can't really do recaps for this show, not for the same reasons. In fact I'm not sure I can do recaps for the things I love; I just have way too many feelings. I'm sure you've seen my posts when an new chapter of CP goes up--it's just abject flailing. But after the first new ep for SPN I actually wrote a fic about the writers writing it. Half of the writers were silly and the other half were awesome; which just explained everything for me. Now after each ep I write one of those in my head (haven't had time to jot the rest down!) and I feel so much more settled. Um. This is a big long tangent, sorry.

The way you make me all verklempt about fandom

lol German. It is so perfect for abstractions. I'm glad it made you feel this way! I was just so afraid fandom would come off looking bad, like I hated it or something.


Yeah. You did a superb job of cutting the bloat and keeping the greatness, in the final draft.

Glad to hear you say that!

I ♥ lettered!

I don't always flesh her out that well but sometimes she's okay. *snorts*

you are barking mad and kind of a genius.

Wow, thanks!

I got to help a tiny bit

I take issues with "tiny"!

[stultiloquentia]

Thanks so much for all your help. I knew it was clunky; I'm just always
so afraid people won't glom onto my MESSAGES and my MESSAGES are never so
interesting as what actually comes out when I'm not directly
thinking about them. It's interesting how that works.

It is. I've groused before that the passages of my stories that get the most compliments are often what I wrote at the last minute, while half asleep.

It was interesting for me to be reading this at the same time as quinara's Spikeid: you had equally ingenious ideas and exactly opposite dilemmas. At you I kept wanting to shout, "Ahhh, stop beating me over the head! Have faith!" I finished Quin's poem and went and asked her, "Okay, explain why you did it that way," and she did, at great length, and it was bloody brilliant and totally made sense, and I felt kind of dumb. Except I'm really not a dumb reader. She's too telescopic. I think. *vexed hindfeathers* I can't tell anymore; I have to reread it.

Anyway, IT'S ALL A FINE BALANCE AND YOU CAN ONLY PLEASE YOURSELF or some such shit.

I saw your post about doing recaps for Glee--I can't really do recaps for
this show, not for the same reasons. In fact I'm not sure I can do
recaps for the things I love; I just have way too many feelings.
I'm sure you've seen my posts when an new chapter of CP goes up--it's
just abject flailing.

I'm so glad you do those flaily posts, though. They bring me joy. As you said to somebody in a comment over on LJ, it feels like finding a friend.

But after the first new ep for SPN I actually wrote a fic about the writers writing it.

Oh my goodness, did you actually write it down? I'd love to see it, even if it's totally dorky. (I have totally dorky conversations with the PTB in my own head. But I've never transcribed one.)

lol German. It is so perfect for abstractions. I'm glad it made you
feel this way! I was just so afraid fandom would come off looking bad,
like I hated it or something.

Haha. I'm trying to think if there are any biggies you missed. Weltschmertz? Did you get Weltschmertz in there?

Fandom would have come off looking bad if you had made all the commenters stupid, but you didn't. You made them as snarky, diverse, thoughtful and absurd as we always are.

[lettered]

I've groused before that the passages of my stories that get the most compliments are often what I wrote at the last minute, while half asleep.

I got a really good response for an H/D story that I wrote by seriously just closing my eyes and driving. Except it was more shutting my brain off and typing?

IT'S ALL A FINE BALANCE AND YOU CAN ONLY PLEASE YOURSELF

What's interesting is sometimes I don't know what pleases myself! I have to have people tell me.

Oh my goodness, did you actually write it down? I'd love to see it, even if it's totally dorky. (I have totally dorky conversations with the PTB in my own head. But I've never transcribed one.)

Transcribe it. It is so much fun. Here's mine: Same As The Old Boss. It deals heavily with details from the first ep of S7. Though Lynne seemed to get it, and she doesn't even watch SPN.

Did you get Weltschmertz in there?

I didn't! I didn't know that word, actually. I actually didn't even know Weltanschauung either; I got it off panlexicon. I would seriously curl into a ball and rock if that site ever died.

You made them as snarky, diverse, thoughtful and absurd as we always are.

Thanks! I take that as a high compliment indeed!